Lama Zopa Rinpoche recently checked on what is best to be done in Nigeria, where so many people are dying of hunger. It seems that this is due in part to extremists preventing food and aid from reaching people in need. According to Save the Children, up to half of all children under five are acutely malnourished in some areas of north-east Nigeria, where it is feared 200 children could die every day.

While Rinpoche considered making a donation to help the starving people, he then did a divination to check what was best. The result? Students of Rinpoche who are concerned about Nigeria should do the extensive Medicine Buddha puja, making strong prayers to Medicine Buddha for those affected to be free of hunger and oppression.

I hope that you understand what the word ‘spiritual’ really means. It means to search for – to investigate – the true nature of the mind. There’s nothing spiritual outside. My rosary isn’t spiritual; my robes aren’t spiritual. Spiritual means the mind and spiritual people are those who seek its nature.